SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Environmental Protection, Autocracy, Resource Mobilization
Document Summary
Jan 22nd lecture 15 politics & social movements brym. People rebel when traditional norms, expectations and patterns of behavior are disrupted. People rebel when they have access to the material and organizational means to do so. People rebel when social movement leaders make their activities, ideas and goals congruent with the interests, beliefs and values of potential movement recruits. A popular breakdown theory: relative deprivation as cause of rebellion. People feel relatively deprived when they experience and intolerable gap between the social rewards they think they deserve and the social rewards they expect to receive. Social rewards are widely valued goods, including money, education, security, prestige, etc. Accordingly, people are most likely to rebel against authority when rising expectations (brought on by, say, rapid economic growth and migration) are met by a sudden decline in social rewards (due to, say, economic recession or war).
